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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
God, I love Lovecraft. Sure, he's a racist, sure, he has a weird thing about "ancient lore" and genealogy, and sure, he tends to rely on the same basic imagery in every story, but man has he got his craft figured out. The ones I particularly enjoy, obviously, are the ones that don't have all of the incredibly obvious racism. So "The Rats in the Walls" is out, as is the Herbert West story (where he charmingly refers to a black man as a "loathsome thing"). It's impossible to get around or excuse Lovecraft's racism, but it's a little surprising how nasty and savage it is compared to many of the other authors of that time and before that have remained popular to this day. The superstition around the importance of "good breeding" and the ugliness towards any of the other races - and by the way, it's not just black people who catch crap from Lovecraft, it's the Italians, the Islanders, the Spaniards - basically anyone who isn't an Anglo-Saxon.
It's particularly strange because he was so far ahead of his time when it comes to science fiction. Yes, there had been Wells and Verne before him, but his fiction was explicitly "genre" fiction, and he managed to meld science into horror, and that's really impressive - but the superstition and the backwards attitudes that pervade it seem contrary to a lot of what he was trying to say.
Basically, I pick up on two pretty hardcore anxieties in Lovecraft's books. First, he tends to feel a lot of anxiety about the mingling of the races - I love The Shadow Over Innsmouth, but that whole allegory about interbreeding with monsters just like the Pacific islanders did could not be more thinly veiled than it is - and the second is this kind of vague dread about the arrival of science and the age of rationalism in a world we don't understand or that doesn't care about us. The second anxiety is legitimately fascinating, the first anxiety is boring and beneath him.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying I'd suggest Lovecraft to anyone, but probably with a caveat about his racism.
It's particularly strange because he was so far ahead of his time when it comes to science fiction. Yes, there had been Wells and Verne before him, but his fiction was explicitly "genre" fiction, and he managed to meld science into horror, and that's really impressive - but the superstition and the backwards attitudes that pervade it seem contrary to a lot of what he was trying to say.
Basically, I pick up on two pretty hardcore anxieties in Lovecraft's books. First, he tends to feel a lot of anxiety about the mingling of the races - I love The Shadow Over Innsmouth, but that whole allegory about interbreeding with monsters just like the Pacific islanders did could not be more thinly veiled than it is - and the second is this kind of vague dread about the arrival of science and the age of rationalism in a world we don't understand or that doesn't care about us. The second anxiety is legitimately fascinating, the first anxiety is boring and beneath him.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying I'd suggest Lovecraft to anyone, but probably with a caveat about his racism.
This was outdated and I could not get behind some of the language used which is a shame because the story itself is interesting enough. The mythology itself was what earned the star.
I might return to this at some point but for now I'm DNF-ing at 33%. Perhaps my expectations were too high? He may have been inspired by Edgar Allan Poe but he doesn't have the same magic. I would love to know more about his mythos but I can't bring myself to it atm.
His influence on pop culture is undeniable, and everything is in such a nice, accessible language.
Con afán de corregir algunas lagunas imperdonables en mis lecturas me he encontrado con un relato soberio, magnífico, mayestático,... como La sombra sobre Innsmouth, que por si solo ya vale cinco, diez y hasta veinte estrellitas. Es todo lo que busco en un relato de terror.
El resto del volumen, con sus lógicos altibajos, es una buena muestra del mundo de los mitos. Especialmente interesante me ha parecido la parte de los orígenes, con relatos muy interesantes.
El resto del volumen, con sus lógicos altibajos, es una buena muestra del mundo de los mitos. Especialmente interesante me ha parecido la parte de los orígenes, con relatos muy interesantes.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Some suitably bone-chilling moments of horror in the shorter entries, though the novella included in the collection are typically weighed down by lengthy passages of description and cosmic lore.